subtitle: or better yet, let them make their own!
This morning I came across a couple of articles that talk about the dangerous toys of our youth – or at least those of us who grew up in the 50s, 60s,70s – when helmets, sunscreen, and suing people (or getting sued) were not part of our vocabulary. There are so many things my kids will miss out on because we are so overly cautious now. I have to wonder if it is really that good or even necessary…
MSNBC: Reckless Youth – How We Survived Childhood
After looking at the below list of dangerous toys from Mental Floss, I realized that the best toys of my childhood were the most dangerous ones we created ourselves – probably because I didn’t have a TV influencing my purchasing decisions – not that it made my toys any less dangerous 
.
Mental Floss: 7 Dangerous Toys Kids Today Are Missing Out On
Nothing was as entertaining as taping a squirt gun handle to PVC pipe, loading bottle rockets into them, and firing them at each other as we ran through our town’s ravine in pretend combat.
There were few things as exciting as blowing up matchbox cars under the dry tinder of a pine tree with firecrackers or dropping spinning fireworks into the sewer lines so we could enjoy the glowing colors coming from under the street. Many nights were filled finding as much dry wood and trash as possible to fuel a giant bonfire in our back yard. The bigger it blazed, the better.
Bike races consisted of fast turns on streets that quite often included cars, loose gravel, or slippery oil slicks where neighbors cars had leaked fluids. Of course there was no such thing as helmets, or knee pads. If you slid down a gravel hill on your side while pinned under your bike, you deserved and would eventually be proud of the scrapes and scars the experience produced.
We ate mulberries and raspberries from the side of the street, drank water from mud puddles, jumped off of high places, swung at bats from our rooftops with tennis rackets, and more… . I think I am better off for having learned some of those dangerous lessons and life skills only trial and error can produce.
Gever Tulley captures the spirit of my questions in this TED video a couple of years ago… 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let your Kids Do
- How many “dangerous” toys did you have?
- What others would you add to the list?
- What toy from your past do you wish your kids could have now?
1 response so far ↓
jeff reichanadter // July 7, 2009 at 7:13 am |
i remember arriving in india and seeing all the sharp edges on the playground and the jagged rocks and broken glass on the fields where the children played. the first day we were there one boy fell out of a tree. he never cried. he just got up and kept going. i loved it. the experience even toughened up our own kids.
every time we traveled somewhere we were bound to encounter a near death experience on the roads. but we never actually died. we packed as many people into the vehicles as possible and the kids sat with me in the front of the jeep with no seat belts and no car seats. ah … what bliss!